To say that the New England Patriots struggled against the Buffalo Bills last season would be putting it lightly.
The Patriots lost two of the three games they played against the Bills and didn’t force them to punt in the two games that they lost.
Belichick, however, disagrees with that sentiment and said that the Patriots had the Bills in punt formation during their Week 16 contest last season.
“I mean, we had them in punt formation on the first series of the game in the second game and gave up a fake punt,” Belichick said, (first transcribed by NESN). “So, I wouldn’t really put that on the defense. But regardless, they moved the ball consistently against us. We certainly didn’t make them punt in the playoff game.”
This is actually not accurate. The Bills never sent out their punt team when they played the Patriots in Week 16 of last season.
Per NESN, the Bills faced one fourth down, but it came at the Patriots’ 3-yard line when they scored a touchdown.
Belichick will be hoping that his team does force the Bills to punt in this next game on Thursday night or it’ll likely go how two of the three games last year went.
Kickoff will be at 8:15 p.m. ET.